Wilhelm Grube

Wilhelm Grube (17 August 1855 – 2 July 1908) was a German sinologist and ethnographer. He is particularly known for his work on Tungusic languages and the Jurchen language.

Biography

Grube was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia in 1855. He studied Chinese, Manchu, Mongolian and Tibetan under Franz Anton Schiefner at the University of Saint Petersburg from 1874 to 1878.

In 1878, Grube moved to Germany to study at the University of Leipzig under Georg von der Gabelentz, and he submitted his doctoral dissertation in 1880. The following year he taught a course on Tibetan grammar at the University of Leipzig, but he was unable to obtain a regular teaching position,

In 1897 he went to China with his wife, and they stayed there until 1899, acquiring a large collection which he deposited in the Ethnological Museum of Berlin when he returned. and it has remained the principal source for the study of the Jurchen language ever since.

In addition to his linguistic studies, Grube also published extensively on Chinese philosophy, religion and mythology. He was also interested in Chinese literature, and posthumously published a German translation of the Chinese mythological novel, Fengshen Yanyi ('The Investiture of the Gods'), as well as German translations of a set of Chinese shadow play scripts.

Works

1881. Die Sprachgeschichtliche Stellung des Chinesischen. T. O. Weigel. 1892. Linguistische Ergebnisse 1: Giljakisches Wörterverzeichniss nebst Grammatischen Bemerkungen (vocabulary and grammar of Gilyak). Part 1 of Leopold von Schrenck (ed.), Die Völker des Amur-Landes. 1896. Taoistischer Schöpfungsmythus. Reimer. 1896. Die Sprache und Schrift der Jučen (the language and writing of the Jurchen). Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz. 1898. "Pekinger Totenbräuche"; Journal of the Peking Oriental Society Vol. IV: 79–141. 1900. Linguistische Ergebnisse 2: Goldisch-deutsches Wörterverzeichnis (vocabulary of the Gold language). Part 2 of Leopold von Schrenck (ed.), Die Völker des Amur-Landes. 1901. Zur Pekinger Volkskunde. Volume 7 of Veröffentlichungen aus dem Königlichen Museum für Völkerkunde. Berlin: W. Spemann. 1902. Geschichte der Chinesischen Litteratur; Volume 8 of Litteraturen des Ostens in Einzeldarstellungen. Leipzig: C. F. Amelangs. 1908–1909. Die Religion der Alten Chinesen. In Religionsgeschichtliches Lesebuch. Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr. 1909. Die chinesische Philosophie. 1910. Religion und Kultus der Chinesen. Leipzig: R. Haupt. 1912. With Herbert Mueller. Fêng-shên-yên-i: Die Metamorphosen der Goetter (translation of the Chinese mythological novel Fengshen Yanyi). Leiden: Brill. 1915. With Emil Krebs. Chinesische Schattenspiele (collection of Chinese shadow play scripts). Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz.